The Real Reason Blairite Sadiq Khan Will Not Cut the Cost of London Travelcards

Like many Londoners – I rejoiced at the election of Sadiq Khan as London Mayor. However, as time has gone on, I have come to realise the nature of his tenure in the capital. The current Mayor of London represents the rightwing of the Labour Party – and because of this is termed a ‘Blairite’ – or follower of Tony Blair’s neo-conservative political values. As such, Sadiq Khan’s policies in London support not the Socialist vision of the current Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn (despite Sadiq Khan’s lip-service to the contrary), but rather is in full accordance with Tory policy, whereby he supports the middle class. What I can only describe as Tory propaganda is encompassed in the reply I received on behalf of Sadiq Khan’s Office yesterday, which rather shockingly (and uncritically) states that more and more people are working ‘part-time’ in London – with no acknowledgement of the injustice of zero-hours contracts, the dismantling of London’s NHS System, or the sudden, dramatic and cruel effects of the withdrawal of Benefits from the disabled, the poor, vulnerable, aged and unemployed, etc. No one can live in London on a ‘part-time’ wage and not be in some state of distress. Even nurses working for London’s NHS hospitals are having to visit food-banks just to survive! I asked Sadiq Khan why he does not cut the price of a travelcard across the board to help the ‘ordinary’ people who are still suffering under Tory ‘Austerity’ – and the following verbal garbage is the reply furnished on his behalf. The vital piece of information missing from this ‘answer’ below is that the maintenance and upgrading of Britain’s public transport system is paid for many times over through income tax and local council tax – so why does Sadiq Khan claim to rely upon the ‘cost’ of each individual travel ticket to finance these changes? What the London Mayor does not want to be known, or at least broadcast, is that ‘Transport for London’ (TFL) is now ‘privatised’ and run by a number of private companies – the share-holders of which expect a profitable return for their investment. This profit is paid for through the current outrageous cost of a travelcard! As Sadiq Khan is not a Socialist, he does not want to ‘offend’ his middle class friends in the City – and exercise the power he has as London Mayor to initiate a blanket ‘cut’ in the cost of travelcards. It seems to be that those in power have learned nothing from the Grenfell disaster, and that for Blairites like Sadiq Khan – the current Mayor of London – it is business as usual exploiting the masses.

Customerservice@tfl.gov.uk

24 August 2017

Dear Mr Chan-Wyles

Thanks for your email of 5 July to the Mayor about the price of Travelcards.

Your email was passed to us to reply on the Mayor’s behalf as we’re responsible for implementing the Mayor’s Transport Strategy. I’m sorry for the delay in replying.

I appreciate your concerns about the cost of fares which you feel are high. As you’re aware, we’re undertaking massive improvement works to improve services across the transport network, refurbishing our old stations and rebuilding Tube tracks on all lines. The fares charged will help protect the reinvestment to deliver greater capacity and more reliable services.

Most of our ongoing work is focussed on improvements to signals, trains and track, and on new approaches and technologies that can help us continue reducing delays to customers. Major improvements have already been completed, including the installation of new signalling on some lines. The process of rebuilding and renewing is ongoing with further improvements planned and major projects on other lines already well underway or being planned.

Some fares increase while others remain unchanged.

To support the change in London’s workforce where over 20 per cent of Londoners now work part time, we cut pay as you go daily caps to become one fifth of the cost of a 7 day Travelcard to zone 1 in January 2015. This was ‘all day cap’ gave a much fairer commuting cost for many part-time workers.

The Mayor’s Transport Strategy outlines the key proposals of transforming the Tube network.

The Mayor would like to hear your views on the key parts of the Strategy in his current Draft Mayor’s Transport Strategy. You can submit your views by email at: consultations@tfl.gov.uk; or write to us at FREEPOST TFL CONSULTATIONS. The consultation closes on 2 October.

Thanks again for contacting the Mayor. If there’s anything else we can help you with, please reply to this email. Alternatively, you can speak to one of our Customer Service Advisers on 0343 222 1234.